Community stands together to arrest robbers in Port Elizabeth

An early morning jog turned into a life threatening experience when a member of Parliament and his daughter joined other Summerstrand residents in arresting two armed criminals in Port Elizabeth last Wednesday (6 June 2018).

“My daughter and I were having our morning run down Admiralty Way at 07:40 am.

We heard a woman screaming and we looked around and saw two black males running in our direction. I said to my daughter that these guys have robbed someone.

I observed them carefully and they were on either side of the road and as the one man ran past us my daughter asked him “ what have you done”? He said nothing but continued running,” said Dr Malcolm Figg who is also the leader of the DA in Kouga.

“When they saw that we had noticed them they ran into a side street and I looked around hoping that a police van might be patrolling but nothing. I continued running towards Beach Road because I knew they had to find a way out of Summerstrand with a Taxi.

As we turned into Beach Road we ran about 500 meters and we saw one of the black males walking nonchalantly towards Beach Road from a side street. I shouted “it’s him” and he started to run.

A woman who had been following him in her car then tried to cut him off as he ran towards the beach. We ran towards the beach.

I stopped in the middle of the road and shouted “Help! Help! Help! To which workers from AWA builders, those working on the fibre optics and municipal workers came to assist.

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My daughter ran towards the one male and when she was about ten meters away from him he pulled out a gun. I shouted to her to get away from him which she did.

One of the workers bravely risked his life and attacked the suspect and wrestled a gun from the robber. In the meanwhile the second robber was being chased and apprehended by a group of people.

By that time there were about twenty to thirty people who had come to assist in apprehending the robbers. The lesson that is learned from this is that crime can be controlled with assistance of the community. Atlas arrived about five minutes later and the police about twenty minutes later,” added Figg.

Both suspects aged 26 and 30 years old were detained on charges on Armed Robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition.

Police will be investigating whether the suspects could be linked to other crimes in the area.